Mary Cooke, 27, was visited by police after she called 999 to report that she had nearly been run down by a speeding car.What...the...f***?
The officer did not mention that she was unhappy about the state of Mrs Cooke's rented house, but after leaving wrote a memo to the social services.
Was this one of the houses often mentioned at Inspector Gadget's, inhabited by the underclass? The sort of place where you wipe your feet after you leave, and breathe through your mouth for the duration of your visit?
Well, no. It seems the house was half-decorated. Not dirty. Just half-decorated...
Last night, Mrs Cooke, a housewife who is 12 weeks' pregnant with her first child, said: 'The letter made me feel sick. I believe someone was judging me for decorating the house and I can't believe it. I'm in the first stages of pregnancy. I'd never dream of bringing a child home to a house being decorated.The letter Mrs Cooke refers to?
'I told the policewoman we are moving in February. We've been renting privately and we had started decorating, then a bigger house came up for rent and we decided to take it.
'But we thought it was only right to finish off what we'd started for the next people who come here.'
...warning her of a potential 'referral' for her unborn child. In addition, the council contacted her midwife.Who was, presumbly, pretty baffled.
Mrs Cooke, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, added: 'They contacted my midwife behind my back, but apparently she said she had no worries.Well, how good of them!
'Now they've accepted that the policewoman may have been a little over zealous, so none of this will go against me in the future. They've decided to let the matter rest'.
Mrs Cooke warns others that reporting anything to the police could now mean, if you are pregnant, that you will be judged on the state of your house, or if you serve tea in mismatched cups, or fail to raise your pinkie when lifting a teacup to your lips.
She needn't have bothered. This will only be used against people like her...
'It seems that the police and social services go from one extreme to another, they either do nothing and a little child dies or they go completely over the top.'Quite.
And why did no-one review this dim-bulb PC Plodette's work, before she sent a letter? Is she new? Is she straight out of college, wet behind the ears, never seen a house like that described in the case notes on Baby Peter?
Why is someone so out of touch with what constitutes 'a concern' allowed free rein to do this?
The predictable response from the police mouthpiece? Deny, deny, deny...
A spokesman for Staffordshire Police said: 'Our officers aim to act in the best interests of everyone they come into contact with.I don't subscribe to the 'the police are the enemy!' theory.
'Their role can include making sure people get any extra help and support they might need.'
He declined to confirm whether the officer had referred Mrs Cooke to social services.
But it's getting harder and harder to maintain that optimism...
Bloody hell, time to crack out the Dulux in case the police pay me a visit!
ReplyDeleteGod knows what they would think nowadays then of my Dad installing the central heating upstairs after I was born and downstairs when my brother followed a couple of years later. Done might I add during two weeks holiday (no paternity leave in those days) he took on each occasion.
ReplyDeleteOne day very soon, the Nation will be stunned by a spontaneous chain of murderous events to make the siege of Sydney Street seem like a schoolboy prank.
ReplyDeleteEvery columnist will say "I could see it coming". Police thereafter will always be fully armed and a new political era will begin.
This is yet another example of the punishment being inversely proportional to the offence* - the hallmark of authoritarianism.
ReplyDelete* Of course, the women committed no offence - and just think how much scope that gives them - and the speeding driver did - but what happened to him?
They're no longer "the police", think of them as a milder stasi.
ReplyDeleteThey work for THEM, not you.
Lookup Peels 9 principles of policing, see if you can find one they achieve.
In a socialist state, there is no crime, because the government runs everything perfectly and everyone is happy.
ReplyDeleteAnyone reporting a crime is therefore an enemy of the people and has to be treated as such. It was true in Moscow in 1970 and it's true in Britain now.
"I don't subscribe to the 'the police are the enemy!' theory.
ReplyDeleteBut it's getting harder and harder to maintain that optimism..."
Took me a while too - you'll get there.
Slowjoe:
ReplyDeleteTypically, I'd be spitting over this.
However, today, I'm in a pensive mood.
In a similar vein to the Fort Hood gunman (about whom the warning signs seem to have been many and varied), I wonder about jobsworth coppers and social workers.
Do we have an entirely rotten system, or simply a few bad apples ruining the entire barrel? Do we have no effective way of saying to someone "You're a jobsworth, you're wrong, get a grip or get out"?
Unfortunately, we're probably in worse shape than the Yanks, because I see no prospect of the bad apples ever being dealt with.
Anon 15:37, it's not just the jobsworths. Thye are supervised by careerists, managerialists and box-tickers.
ReplyDeleteOnly bloody revolution will rid of this scourge.
Yesterday everyone was hip-hip-hooraying 20 years since the Belrin Wall came down. The bricks and mortar may have been removed, but all that has happened is that we have been moved inside a virtual Berlin Wall.
Nah, the problem is that socialists believe that the best way to cure a bad apple is to surround it with good ones...
ReplyDeleteHmm,, coincidentally - or rather, not - another example of the 'authorities' picking an easy target.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see this Plodette give decorating tips to the fast-breeding harridans of Castle City and its grim suburbs.
davidncl said...
ReplyDelete"I don't subscribe to the 'the police are the enemy!' theory.
But it's getting harder and harder to maintain that optimism..."
Took me a while too - you'll get there.
Some of you may remember me from the police blogs. I KNOW MTG doers. I would have not a word said against the police, being ex Brit police, and serving German police.
BUT I find myself RAPIDLY coming to the conclussion that my view of the BRITISH police was 90% WRONG.
Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, and, to those from London who will understand "Kill the Bill" is becomming increasingly attractive.
Britain needs to disband the present police forces (THERFORE "Kill the Bill"), and start afresh, PREFERABLY using some philosophy that has long been forgotten like.... Sir Robert Peel, who ONCE proposed a policing theory. Do not know if it was ever taken up.
"Bloody hell, time to crack out the Dulux in case the police pay me a visit!"
ReplyDeleteBetter not swear at a council official, or they'll pay you a visit at 5:35am...
"God knows what they would think nowadays then of my Dad installing the central heating upstairs after I was born and downstairs when my brother followed a couple of years later."
The disconnect between real life and what exists between this Plodette's ears is staggering. Should she be allowed out on her own?
"Lookup Peels 9 principles of policing, see if you can find one they achieve."
I tried. Couldn't find one.
"Took me a while too - you'll get there."
With Leg-Iron's example today of the man roused at 5:35am for swearing at a council official, it's speeding me on the way...
"I'd like to see this Plodette give decorating tips to the fast-breeding harridans of Castle City and its grim suburbs."
I'd love to be a fly on the wall when she visits one of those houses...